Liu Xiang, the world record holder in the 110-meter hurdles, pulled out of the Birmingham International meet Tuesday.

 

Liu was to captain the Chinese team competing at the August 19-20 meet, but the Olympic champion will instead assist with the World Junior Championships in Beijing on August 15-20.

 

Liu's time of 12.88 seconds at the Athletissima Grand Prix meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, in July broke the previous record of 12.91 he shared with Britain's Colin Jackson.

 

Jackson set the mark in Stuttgart, Germany, in August 1993, and Liu tied it while winning the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

 

Liu said he was unsure if his world record would be bettered during his competitive lifetime.

 

"In the next 10 years, I think the best time will be around 12.90 seconds. But who knows? Maybe it can stand until I become a grandfather," Xinhua News Agency quoted the 23-year-old Liu as saying.

 

Liu's coach, Sun Haiping, said no Chinese runners could challenge his protege, media reported yesterday.

 

"There are too few excellent hurdlers in China at the moment," he insisted on Monday.

 

The Shanghai native said he was looking forward to September's World Athletics Final in Stuttgart and the IAAF World Cup meeting in Athens.

 

"Those competitions are different from this one. You are pushed to the limit if you want to win," Liu said.

 

(Shanghai Daily August 9, 2006)